Essential Phone: A Product Review

Smartphone fans may not have heard the brand Essential, but the Essential Phone is something to look at. The Essential PH 1 is definitely a brave first attempt at a smartphone from a fledgling company, but there’s something about its design that makes you want to look at it some more. Here Comes A New Challenger!

In a battlefield dominated by Samsung, Apple, and Huawei, Essential’s new PH 1 certainly is a sight to behold. Coming fresh with a good Android OS, the Essential’s PH 1 is, really, an essential.

Sleek, Slim, PowerfulThe Essential PH 1 packs a powerful punch despite its sleek appearance. It follows the trend of curvier and slimmer smartphones, and it certainly impresses with its sophisticated look.

The Pros: Compact, Sleek, PromisingThe Essential Phone has quite the striking design. Its almost bezel free screen makes it a rather innovative piece of tech. All of its hardware is encased in a beautiful blend of ceramic and glass that allows it to turn a few heads.

The titanium frame of the phone offers a lot more durability and weight, making it feel a bit more sophisticated than other phones.

Its ceramic screen is also inviting as it seems glossy, albeit it does offer a ton of opportunities for your fingerprints to stack up.

It also has an impressive layer of technological wonders inside the product. On top of its stock Android OS, this makes room for a lot of personalization on the part of the user.

Even the back of the phone lacks an Essential logo, which adds a flair of “personality” to the phone in itself.

It also runs with the stock Android Nougat, which means users are free of dreaded bloatware. It also affords users opportunities to customize their user interface.

Its full display has no big impact on music and videos. These, coupled with its whopping 128GB storage, makes it quite a formidable device.

Even its battery is good. While some may argue that 3,040mAh is a bit lacking for a device with this much features, it is respectable and decent.

The accessories drain the battery much quicker, but it does not lose battery quickly when used with the ordinary workload.

It can get restored to full battery in about an hour and a half’s worth of charge, which is not bad.

The Cons: Lacks Essential Features

Unfortunately, not all firsts are exactly good. The Essential Phone lacks, well, essential features you’d think a phone trying to race against the likes of Apple and Samsung would have.

The accessory port the phone has could also use some work. The Essential Phone lacks expandable storage, waterproofing, and wireless charging. It also doesn’t possess a headphone jack, which is something most users are looking for in brands that do not seem to want to offer them.

One might hope Essential continues giving out accessories, or there wouldn’t be anything else to do with the phone. For instance, its 360 degree camera plug in allows you to record in 2K and 4K resolution.

The device is $179, though, and given the timeframe it took for it to be released, it might not be worth the wait for some.

The phone is also a complete fingerprint magnet, which means its screen isn’t exactly the friendliest around.

On top of all this is the rather steep price tag, which makes some do think twice about purchasing a product that hasn’t seen performance in the market. It does have a high $699 price tag which, if you’re looking for the features above, makes the Essential Phone a tough choice.

Verdict The Essential Phone is definitely an interesting entry to a smartphone race dominated by the likes of Apple, Samsung, and Huawei. With Huawei just barely passing Apple in sales, and with Apple unveiling its newest products, newcomers like Essential PH 1 is bound to make the smartphone game very interesting.